South African police said 34 people died in a clash between striking miners and police yesterday . . . police fired on miners armed with clubs and machetes at the Marikana platinum mine after they refused to disburse . . . earlier violence killed ten people, including two police officer hacked to death by miners . . . although the immediate issue was a demand by miners for a pay raise, tensions were stoked by trade union rivalries . . . the new Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union is challenging the powerful National Union of Mineworkers for dominance . . . the shooting will also exacerbate racial and economic tensions, as radical factions continue to paint mining as a bastion of white dominance over the black majority.